Morning Gooners,
Everything has been said about our game on Sunday against Liverpool and you don’t need me to tell you the scoreline or the scorers for that matter.
Just like every other Arsenal fan, I thought reading the papers would be something to relish for once.
However!
All the lazy journalists wanted to report was how poor Liverpool were. How they had offloaded their forwards and rather than report about how good ours are, they just wanted to write about who Brendan Rodgers should try and snap up for free.
Funny enough, not too much written about how Arsenal had the game under control, how well the team fought as a unit and how the players have gelled very quickly and of course, very little about the two fine goals scored from our new boys!
What about Steve Bould and Neil Banfield?
How many seasons have the press/media fed off of our all too often inept defensive performances?
Too many to mention I would say, yet not a word about how the pair of them have obviously had a huge impact on our training and we look as if we have finally become a unit at the back and a much more robust one at that.
Hardly a mention about Santi Cazorla slotting into midfield as if he’s been part of Arsenal for decades, very little about the work rate of Giroud either was there? No, they would rather concentrate on his chances that didn’t find the back of the net.
There was even this comment on Twitter from the idiots at TalkSport:
Santi Cazorla = poor man’s David Silva.
Jut how bitter and twisted are they on that channel?
Another story I read in one of the newspapers was about how RVP is a big loss for us, especially after his 3 goals for his new employers. He’s gone, so move on I say.
Ok, I am biased towards our club but when I witness what I did at Anfield, I expect others to share that view but reality is, unless reporters are Arsenal fans or 100% impartial, very little ‘positive’ gets reported about our club.
Well, that being the case I suppose we have to sing our own praises and high praise it should be too after Sunday.
I don’t want to heap pressure on this new look team but to me it looks like Wenger has given Steve Bould a licence to do what he pleases. To get our defenders doing what he was so good at years ago in the Arsenal back line. He seems to have tightened things up and got the defence working together and for each other.
He has also given them a bit of backbone. No longer do the defenders back off, they now get stuck in and should they get beaten another Arsenal man is ready to step in. I suppose you could say Arsenal look as if they have parked the bus back there but it also looks as if one bus follows another as the midfield are working their way forward at every opportunity.
In our first two games I felt that we were trying out this new look team and the emphasis was more about not conceding goals rather than go out with all guns blazing. Sunderland and Stoke have turned out to be like a spring-board for us, two teams that do tend to defend with all their might and those two fixtures have given us the time to put our own house in order.
We have done well up to now, three clean sheets on the trot which is almost a record for us, although I wouldn’t say we are the finished article yet as Stoke did get the ball in our net. We won’t get the referee’s decision very often.
The commentators at the Liverpool game made me smile, our own Alan ‘Smudger’ Smith said he hoped Abou Diaby can stay fit for the season as he can be a big player for us this year and I can still hear the same being said last season about van Persie last season. It’s quite evident already that we are not a one man team this term and although I agree Diaby did play well, should he get injured we have excellent cover.
Many see Giroud as the replacement for van Persie, but he’s not, Podolski is and he finished on Sunday in a manner that our old Dutchman would have. Giroud is the big strong striker we lacked last season. He will definitely be a success, his work rate is first class and although he looks a bit anxious at the moment, he will soon settle down and start scoring.
I must just mention Abou Diaby again and commentators/pundits alike. Reference was made to Patrick Vieira and one pundit said that he thought Abu is the closest thing we have to him for years. He also likened Diaby Ya Ya Toure, who lets face it, is no slouch.
This season should be the making of him and if I say so myself, not before time.
I have good feelings about this campaign from what I have seen so far. Trophies are there to be won. I know its early days and I could end up with egg on my face but this team have the makings of the real deal .
Wilshere is almost ready to return and Sagna/Rosicky are not far off either. Even young Frimpong could return before Christmas so things are looking good.
Add all that with much better performances from Gervinho and Walcott, this side could turn out being real challengers.
Finally we have a squad of players who will all have to work their socks off to keep their starting place and I can’t wait for the so called big teams – they won’t know what’s hit them…
Come on you Gunners!
Written by Steve Palmer
Morning all…
Great upbeat, positive post SP, love it….
Got to go out this morning, back in a couple of hours…
Later all
Morning all. Good post Steve. Not much in the papers about RvP carrying united either….
The press always seem anti the club you follow – but in Arsenal’s case it does at times seem OTT – although Gary N (BBC) and Andy Gray (only Talksport show pundit worth the effort) were positive about Sunday’s performance.
I recently listened to an Arsene Wenger pre-match press conf where one journalist asked “Why should any player want to join Arsenal” it showed a complete lack of respect. We just need to do the the business on the field though.
Nice post Steve.
The team hasn’t looked this good since Reyes left us.
The team were solid and well-balanced and at times we looked electric. We never looked like losing.
This looks the most exciting Arsenal side since 2004.
it’s a shame the internationals are upon us, when we could be building on a sound start.
Just got my tickets through for Southampton and Chelsea. Can’t wait.
All positives!
Foolish journalists….typical british prejudice. We need to reply them with a trophy though.
I will tell you why Sunday was so impressive and that was because IMO, despite what the pundits say, Liverpool actually played quite well themselves. They obviously lack some firepower up front but in the rest of their play they looked decent and I think AW is right that given time they will re-emerge under Rogers. They outplayed Citeh last week and were unlucky to only draw, so rather than our win being about liverpool being poor I think it is more that we played at a level above Citeh. At times it had the classic hallmarks of the invincibles style of play, making it difficult for your opposition to penetrate you and driving forward with pace and intent when we won possession back. At other times we kept possession for periods of time and took the pace of the game in our more recent Arselona style. Is this now a plan A and a plan B, an ability to change the pace and style of play within a game so that the opposition doesn’t know what to expect.
My only 2 worries would be firstly that a huge amount of our quality midfielders are either injury prone or have had long term injuries previously and injuries to a combination of 3 midfielders could cause us problems. Think Diaby, Rosicky, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Frimpong and you can see they are either good for an injury or have previously had long injury lay offs. If all fit we may have the best midfield in the EPL so it is fingers crossed that our season is not blighted by bad combinations of injuries. Secondly, as I have said before, I still feel we are 1 squad player short in the striker department and it will require Giroud and also the likes of Walcott, Gervinho and AOC to step up and start scoring more regularly if we are not to end up frustrated in some games that we should have obviously won.
We are Arsenal, the team the press love to disparage. We palyed one of the North West wonder clubs and we beat them, need I say more. COYG.
Great positive post Steve….excellent morning read!!
Having started their ‘preview’ with an overly negative assessment of arsenal, including a statistic about the team having the lowest shooting accuracy in the league at 19%, the media were never going to turn round and reverse that script. It would be self defeating for them to have a good arsenal. So they would rather say it’s liverpool that was too poor, having shipped their own “saviour” andy carrol (blime me – it was because he misfired too often). But dont forget even last year it took them way into the season to realise that far from nicking arsenal’s place in the top four, liverpool were actually just an illusion of a good team.
Santi = Poor man’s David Silva. What a joke……Cazorla has been at Arsenal for 3 games and he’s been best on field for the first 2 games and many will argue this one as well. David Silva didn’t really tick the boxes until his 2nd season in the EPL. Santi is very much a player like Iniesta, patiently moving the ball around, and then out of nowhere kicks into turbo gear and creates or scores. Just look at the 2nd goal, it was so Iniesta-like. Just spotted a gap and exploded into it. David Silva is very much a one-gear palyer like Xavi, except Xavi is a much better passer of the ball. Santi will be player of the year this season and then you’ll see Barca and Real snooping around again, probably trying to sell Song back to us lol.
Morning all.
Just read in this mornings paper that Wenger wants young Alex Oxlaid Chamberlain to sign a new contract although he still has 4 years to run on his old one. Alex has shown Wenger what kind of player he is going to be and i suspect he believes he deserves a wage hike. Players like Chamberlain are in demand and Wenger would be foolish to leave it too long to give him wages he deserves, With Theo asking high wages and waiting till Christmas to see what happens it seems that Wenger wants a settled team. Of course he has to keep tabs on wages as i believe that is why we have lost some good players over the last couple of seasons, but we also have to be realistic i believe that we get away with murder as we buy players at realistic prices and offer them a little more than they were getting at their previous clubs, but as we all know as these players make a name for themselves with us they also realise that they can earn lots more from the rich clubs where money is not so important, so securing young players for slightly longer could also work out beneficial if we sell, hopefully that won’t be the case .
I love Arsenal….and i love players that give their all lik Henry…and loyal to the club.
Let us face facts……the media….yes,even here in Oz….have done nothing but bag the crap out of Arsenal and Wenger over the off season,and even until the weekend.
Has anyone ever heard of a journalist admit outright that he/she was wrong on a topic??
Suggesting Liverpool were good would have been admitting error,so better to deflect criticism onto the Scousers.
I don’t bother reading newspapers anymore because of one sided reporting,and not just in sports.
Great post Steve,but don’t worry too much about the opinion of fools.
Go you good things!!
But it has nothing to do with Wenger,Bould is the instigator of this real improvement.It just goes to show how little Wenger know about the fine art of defending.
When will the press start saying that Manure is a one man team and that without Van Pursestrings goals they will be in trouble? 4 goals out of their 6 so far. If he was still playing for us you know the Tabloid muppets would be harping on that fact. If it were us that were 2-1 down to a newly promoted team and Van Persie scored those last 2 and got us all 3 points then there would be nothing but derision and “Arsenal rely on Van Persie again” headlines.
Nope, it’s easier to gloss over that out of fear of being banned from a Manure press conference by whisky nose. It’s easier to concentrate on Liverpool’s lacklustre performance than giving credit to Arsenal and their unwelcome foreigners clicking as a team and scoring goals as well as winning away – at Anfield.
If Cazorla and Podolski were English the tabloid circle jerk would be one of epic proportions. If we are a deadset chance to win silverware, of any form, this season I will have almost as much pleasure in watching the scumbag British press squirm by having to acknowledge us as I will in basking in the glory of the drought ending.
Danish,can you name me one top manager in the league who does all the coaching himself??
I see your point DG but Wenger did appoint Bouldy, and he knows enough now to see that Steve is making a difference. I know many supporters still have their doubts about Arsene but it has to be said that his record with top 4 finnishes are second to none i honestly hope that this season brings what fans have been looking for although personally i believe there is not a better manager around. Many will say that Red Nose has a much better record and maybe their right but to have done what Wenger has done with the move of the stadium and tight purse strings he has in my mind been a genius. Fans see things differently and i can understand that but Arsenal have moved forward in my opinion and for the better.
Does show that maybe we were simply coasting when Pat Rice was there in the latter couple of years. There’s been an obvious change since Bould has been there.
True Rocky. Defensively we look smart.
This on twitter
https://twitter.com/Matt_Law_SM/status/242894083461365760
Steve,you reinforced my point.
Danish,and others,may well blame Wenger,but credit where it is due….he employed Bould as he saw a weakness and went about rectifying the problem.
Many fans thought he wouldn’t sign Bould as he is hardly a yes man,but he did.
It doesn’t change the fact that we have had massive defensive issues,but admitting a prolem goes a long way towards fixing it.
stevepalmer1 says:
September 4, 2012 at 10:12 am
Leeds were the “nearly team” of the mid sixties to mid seventies for a period of around 10 years…. two league championships, a League Cup, an FA Cup and a Fairs Cup… Lot’s of 2nds, 3rds and runners ups in those ….
…We haven’t been too dissimilar over Wenger’s Tenure …..
.. And Leeds at the time were regarded as the best team in England
Hopefully 2012 we’ll be back for the 1sts… I still think we’ll win the premier league ….
Yeh good points there Scotty
It’s usually a good game when Arsenal come to Anfield. I respect Wenger’s teams and the way they play football and cannot understand some of the criticism he attracts (especially last week in the run up to deadline day).
The game on Sunday was ok, Cazorla was very good. But other than that the first half was evens – the width of a post separating the teams. The second half was different and Liverpool faded badly especially having conceded a second.
That said, we weren’t that bad and certainly not worthy of the tabloid hysteria of Monday morning. You guys were last year’s early season “crisis club”, we have assumed the mantle now – though whatever distraction the lazy media tarts throw up to fill their pages it shouldn’t detract from what was a textbook away game result. Top marks to the bespectacled futbol professeur.
Morning SYG, i think you have our number and i too think we stand a very good chance this year mind you i have said that for years 🙂
I have watched all of the top teams play this season and i have to say that none worry me, i still stand by what i have said in the past if referee decisions are fair across the board we will have a very good chance,
I felt the referee on Sunday reffed well i have seen many decisions in the past where that was the diference in the result but Webby i thought got it right for once.
Good morning Rico and fellow Housers.
Steve — A good balanced article.
I find it interesting that many press reporters and TV pundits just can’t bring themselves to give Arsenal credit for anything. We win a game and they have to diminish our opposition. The only positive is that, for once, we’re not the team in crisis. Yet. when I read a couple of Liverpool websites I found the game reports were generally balanced and unbiased. A striking contrast to many commercial pundits. You expect a little bias from former players, but it is just so blatant among the obviously anti-Arsenal cadre.
steve – Brilliant post.
We look defensively solid on Sunday. Kudos to Bould and Banfield for coming on board. Theo Walcott might not be getting chance to start matches b/s he is not defensively disciplined. So I guess when we play opponents who likes attacking it will be wise for us to play Gervinho/OX/Poldoski/Santos until Theo learns the trait of defending.
Thank Goodness no more suicidal high-line by our defence.
emma — Is Walcott not being played because of lack of defensive dicipline? Might it be Arsene trying to show him what it might/would be like at one of the sugar-daddy clubs with large squads. If he loses significant club playing time, his England place could be in jeopardy.
CG – Quite possible too. Still believe Walcott is not defensively disciplined. Ox did very well on sunday tracking back to help jenks out and attacking when necessary
Morning, good Article Steve, i did think that our passing at the back in the first half was at time ill advised but that was corrected in the second half and hopefully we will see a more disciplined approach to that in the rest of the season.
Three reasons I think we have been better as a team as well this season, the form of the BFG who is a good organiser and a calming influence he is still susceptible one on one to a quick striker or player but he is showing his worth.
The second is the work rate and presence of Giroud who gives us a plan B he is not scared to attack the ball in the air and opposition centre backs are fair game to him as well been a long time since i saw this from an Arsenal centre forward maybe since John Hartson? His movement is good as well as he forces a response from the opposition and makes them make a decision which leaves space for the other players.
Third and lastly the work rate and movement of Podolski who again makes the opposition make decisions he is a proactive player not content to be stuck in one position and easily marked add to that his discipline in defence and he looks such a good player lets hope he can stay fit.
I’m feeling very positive about this coming season. The big difference from last season is that we seem to have a true team with a co-operative team dynamic. As opposed to a cast of supporting players for the a star center forward. A number of our players have mentioned the great spirit and self belief within the team as a whole.
If we can keep a decent core of players fit, I think we will lift some silverware.
https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/242928978350993408
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico.
Intelligent, insightfull (ful?), perceptive…
It can only be a long-awaited post from Sir Stevo, CBE, OBE and bar.
Great piece sir, and oh so true.
There is more writing talent on HH than the whole of, what was Fleet St.
GoonerB, good points on our midfield.
It’s all about rotation, giving players a breather this side of January.
Fergie does it all the time at VanUre, that’s why they always have plenty left to come on strong in the second half of the season.
Whilst not underestimating Soton, that could be a game to rest Diaby, for example, with CL coming up?
AW needs to carefully manage our m/f trio, giving them breaks whenever he can, to keep them as fresh as he can.
allezkev — “There is more writing talent on HH than the whole of, what was Fleet St.” All too true. However, no criticism of Rico, Steve, yourself, and the other guest writers intended; but Fleet Street has set the bar very low. It amazes me how they get paid shed loads of money for recylcing the same old print/verbal diarrhea. Maybe, that is a big part of the reason traditional print media like newspapers are going broke. Thank heavens for the internet.
allezkev — I agree with you about squad rotation, but why limit it to the midfield. All the players should get a break. For instance the BFG should replace Vermaelen or Koscielny against the physical teams that depend on the longball over the top. The BFG is good in the arial battles, but struggles against teams that pass it with pace on the ground. Regular squad rotation also makes it harder for the opposition to predict our lineup and tactics before a game.
good post Steve….afternoon all.
Afternoon everyone…
Who gives a toot about what the press say, maybe they should thinking about who to suggest to be the next Liverpool boss, as Liverpool fans won’t be patient.
This is not good, not good at all…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197982/Four-Arsenal-fans-arrested-inside-Anfield-stadium-man-beaten-death-Liverpool-street.html
Rico — Your right, we shouldn’t give a toot, as you say, about what the press say. Unfortunately, I think their negativity hekps feed a lot of our fans negativity. To the point that many fans can’t see any positives. That why it was so great to hear our away fans on the broadcast of Sunday’s game. It was great to hear something positive for a change, Kev said they sang their hearts out for 90+ minutes. He later refered to them as the celestial choir.
Did many of our posters burn themselves out Friday and Saturday? Even after the Sunday’s victory over Liverpool the number of posts were way down. I’d hate to think that many of our fans prefer to bitch about the negatives rather than discuss the positives about the club.
Sorry to hear the bad news about the death in Liverpool, football is just a game and life is more important than a game of football. fights go on all round the world where people are killed a sad day indeed if this turns out football related. I am all in favour of banter between to sets of supporters but there is a linit to how far banter goes if this does turn out to be football related then the powers at be should come down very hard indeed, i must admit i have no love for Liverpool but most of their supporters are just the same as us supporters .And to the Liverpool supporter who commented you sound like a true supporter good on ya.
Well said Steve.
Rico — I’ve just noticed that I had inadvertantly changed my e-mail address on my last two posts. I hate the touch pad on the front of this laptop’s keyboard. If i don’t watch it carefully the cursor can jump all over the place.
Hi SP, horrid isn’t it – no place for killing in this life, especially not over a stupid football…
I hope those responsible are caught, prosecuted and get the book throw at them.
Not that it will give that poor guy his life back….
Amen Steve.
Hi Rico, thanks as always 🙂
you are out CG 😉
Rico,
That looks to me like a lazy reporter adding two and two and getting five. Two separate reports, nothing to link those arrested to the death in L’pool city centre.
All of a piece with the “Knock the Gunners” agenda of the media in general.
No, thank you SP 😉
Ak has often said to me that blogs are quieter when things are going well and he’s right. Suppose there is only so many times we can say how wonderful we were 😉
Plus all the transfer talk has gone now, we all know a good rumour keeps us going through the summer..
JW
I’d hate to think our fans would be so violent to do such a thing, the victim was from London too. Going to wait to see. seems wrong to say I hope it’s not any Gooners, just wish it had been no-one and that lad would still be alive…
Turned up to a job on Monday sat outside for two hours and when i got in it wasn’t ready for me so came home, day off today so have written another possible post that may cause a ripple but if you post i may not be around to take the flack 🙂
No probs SP, we all like a post with ripples, raspberry is my fav…
Steve –You’ve piqued my interest. What’s your subject or point of view?
The media loves to have a go at us whenever they can but once we get back to winning ways, those same fools will be the one talking about how beautiful our style of football is and they will be secretly supporting us as their second club. That is just how critics are.
CG – all will be revealed tomorrow 🙂
LSG, as long as we keep winning, s*d them I say….
Rico — Waiting, it’s like the transfer window all over again. Till tomorrow then. Have a good afternoon.
Well said Rico i second that
CG – haha, You have a good afternoon too…
Thought you might SP…
Just off to cut the lawn, back in a bit…
Hiya!! well, welcome back SSP! The press are always down on our Club. Our faults are always magnified, our accomplishments belittled; we should be used to it, and yet each time an obviously biased commentator says something stupid against Arsenal, I am all grrrrr all over again.
Hello, all! Busy, rico?
I doubt winning a trophy will make any difference to the way the British media view Arsenal. If we cast our mind back to the glory days of pre-2004, the medias take on us was that we were the first team to ever field a team with no English/British players. This is one reason I believe AW bought Pennant and later Jeffers ‘fox in the box’. Later on it became the number of red cards we received even though they were mostly due to 2 yellow cards in a match.
When the red card situation improved post the retirement of Razor Ruddock and d. Wise, the media moved on to hanging on to one post match comment from AW. His comment was along the lines of ‘ I would have to have a long at it again as I didn’t see it properly’ I believe, but the media spun it to ‘ I didn’t see it’ even though the Mr Rednose also said the same more frequently.
Even when AW suggested a replay against Sheffiled Wednesday, the medias take on it was that if it were a stronger team he would not have allowed the replay.
Now the media has moved on to Bould being arsenal saviour. This is true to an extent on the defence. However, those familiar with Bould’s U18 will be aware that their defence was one of the worse in the whole Arsenal set-up and he was their manager. I believe the improvement in defence is due to a number of reasons including mindset and also change in set-up.
Hi agag, always busy, even if it’s busy doing nothing 😉
TSGH – not sure why but you went into moderation, sorry…
Think you might be right, maybe we’ll see over the next couple of seasons…
Hi Agag thank you, we will have to force our way up the league before we are taken as hopefulls but many of the Arsenal faithfull have a sneaky feeling that this could be our year. I always want to read good things about the Arsenal but have realised it won’t be coming as often as i would like but give it time and we will be the talk of the league by the end of this season pundits and journo’s will have to agree that the Arsenal way is the right way, anybody can throw money into a team and buy all the tallent on offer but that is just a small part of a successful team good managing and good coaching and a good grounding is parramount to longevity we may not be filling the cabinetts up but we are always involved and we play all the comps not many others can say that. I believe we have the makings of a very good team i also believe we have a stronger squad than we have had for years i also nknow that if we can stay injury free we will have a very good chance of the league and if we stand a good chance in that which is supposed to be the best league in the world we can be a threat in everything we enter.
Anyone watching the Para-Olympic football??
Incredible… and we moan 🙁
Yep, as a Liverpool supporter, you aren’t going to find someone more receptive to analysis of the laziness and hypocrisy in the British media.
I myself, a big Wenger fan (I said Arsenal would get top 4, even after the United game last season and I knew you’d finish above Tottenham), have noted the British media’s unfair treatment of Arsene on the basis that he is Johnny Foreigner. Also the British media don’t appreciate the more studious manager and prefer the good ol’ Cockney wheela-deela that our ‘Arry. They’d rather have someone complicit in their game, who is willing to indulge their frenzied speculation like Redknapp, than the thoughtful Wenger. Benitez had the same problem (though admittedly he isn’t the most charismatic operator).
Nice to see someone above point out that Liverpool weren’t unrelentingly awful as the papers would have you believe. We were at least your equal for the first half and were still in the game until the second goal. We’re not firing on all cylinders, but that is symptomatic of consistent failure to achieve and maintain momentum as a result of wastefulness in front of goal. Liverpool regularly match or outplay our opponents but when you have the lowest conversion rate in the league last season and the lowest so far this season, there is no question where the biggest issue lies. Let me put it this way: if Liverpool had RVP last season, I believe we would have got top 4 (and probably would have not got into Europe because of Chelsea, making it fecking agonising!) .
I don’t think Arsenal were ‘electric’ as one fan here put it but I think the opinion that you never looked like losing is true. First of all. there is the afore mentioned lack of firepower in the Liverpool team but, the new Steve Bould defence (I don’t see how he could have completely fixed it single handedly but that seems to be the consensus!!) looked very sturdy. Arsenal had the air of [*whisper it*] champions- you just went about the game and battled us until our spirit was broken. After that it was a cake walk. I don’t think Arsenal can win the title this season, purely because your players wont be used to that pressure (like us in 2009) but you’re definitely going in the right direction. You just have to hope Diaby, Arteta, Vermaelen and Wilshere (doesn’t look like you’re missing him!) can stay fit because they’ve all had problems with that.
Incredible bit of business getting Cazorla (who like most good players who play for good teams, could of went to Liverpool years ago!!!) and Podolski (who I wasn’t convinced would work out but he looked at home against us).
Good luck for the season (as long as it doesn’t get in our way!!)
YNWA
The press have had it in for us since the 1930’s when they called us ‘Lucky Arsenal’ despite the fact that we regularly scored over 100 goals a season! Since then we’ve been known as boring, dirty and ill-disciplined at various times and the cracked badge Arsenal crisis headline is always ready and waiting.
A few weeks back someone posted the photo of Sammy Nelson dropping his shorts on here. Sammy was a big hero of the crowd in the 1970’s and a joker too. He dropped his shorts for a laugh in shear joy at scoring a screamer but the Daily Mirror said he was having a go at the crowd who had given him stick earlier in the game. It was complete bullsh!t but the FA picked up on it and gave him a 3 game ban.
These days we can rely on Sky to do that sort of thing to us whilst ignoring the likes of Rooney.
BJ – and following the promotion we earned when many accused it of being rigged…
Who cares, he who laughs last eh….
Off to walk Fido, back in a bit…..
They don’t get much sympathy from the crowd when they go down do they rico.
Can’t think of anything much scarier than running around with a blindfold on, goes against all your instincts.
At least we’re consistent when it comes to penalties eh, some things never change.
Last day of the transfer window in France, we might get a cheeky bid for Squllaci, he is fast becoming our Almunia MK II.
Bob John, that was ‘Norways Most Wanted’ better known as SYG on here who put that great photo up.
I always think back to our league game against Millwall in the late 80’s / early 90’s when the FA secretly mic’d up the referee, everyone was told about it except Arsenal, the press had a field day, I still laugh at Tony Adams thinking about it.
The quartet were held in connection with the death of 33-year-old Stuart Smith, who had been beaten to death in Liverpool city centre in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Emergency services were called to the incident at Back Colquitt Streete at 2.45am and Smith was rushed to Royal Liverpool University Hospital, but died from his injuries.
The four men – two 39-year-olds, a 37-year-old and a 27-year-old – were arrested in the away supporters’ section of Anfield during the second half of Sunday’s match, which Arsenal won 2-0. All four men remain in custody.
Police believe that the attack on Londoner Smith may have been caught on a mobile phone video and may even have been posted on YouTube.
“Officers are keen to talk to anyone who was in the area at the time and may have witnessed the incident. They are particularly keen to trace a man who may have captured part of the assault on his camera phone,” a Merseyside Police spokesman said.
The spokesman added that they do not believe the murder was either gang-related or motivated by football rivalries, nor do they think that Mr Smith knew his attackers.
Local residents and businesses have been left shocked by the bloody incident.
“We are appalled and upset about this isolated incident which has happened in what is a very friendly neighbourhood of bars, restaurants, offices and residences,” said a spokesman for the Chameleon Bar, which is on the street where Smith was killed.
“We all send our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.”
Silvestre – Arsenal? again…???
Micko – remember it well and the ‘goal’ that we scored in that game that wasn’t given nearly cost us the title
Sorry, I snuck a quick bite to eat in as well 🙂
evening…..
Micko, the french league can have him, no need for any money to exchange hands 😉
Silvestre back at Arsenal, I thought that was just a daft rumour, one was enough, twice would be just crazy….
Was it five pens missed Micko, and am i right thinking the keeper is sighted, something a bit unfair there if so….
I stopped counting after 4 rico, our guys at AFC suffer hamstrings, these para’s run around with broken noses……OUCH !!! Its enough to make your eyes water.
Bob John “Your a fcuking cheat ref”
Was sad to see Micko….
Ryan Giggs has vowed to treat Robin Van Persie like a brother after meeting the Dutchmans wife
😆 Steve…
sorry
Did you guys here Michael Owen is now a Stoke player.
On that note, I’ll bid you farewell, over and out.
Nte Micko
What for Steve?…
We missed out there Micko… Nighty you….
I’m off for the night if theres anybody left goodnight and thank you all
Wow, busy day today.
Sorry I missed ya Canuck.
Watch out for them there brown bears in the forest mate
Nighty to you Steve, and thank you ….
Hi Ak, you had a busy one then….
Ok, I have to get going now, have a good night all,
Take it easy Ak..
‘Til tomorrow….
Morning Scott…. 😉
Hi & Goodbye Rico….
93 comments only…..
We need a good old crisis to get you lot all moaning….
Well Silvestre back at Arsenal.
Surely that’ll get you all animated?
Silvestre and Squillaci the perfect CB partnership, like cheese and onion, sausages and mash, cannon and ball.
or should I say STD and live yoghurt?
Where has Stan got to…???
That lad is a man of mystery…
Maybe the FBI caught up with him at last?
is it true? I really hope not. I prefer Squillacci!
Reasons to be cheerfulll….
Jacky Wilshere back in the squad, possibly in time for West Ham (a)…?
Vernat, I think that is an exciting combination.
One to get the blood pumping thru your veins. 🙁
Lata
Hi Rico,and touche !!
Very,very good post from Vormhat.
rico, you must upgrade the scores on the right side…
No she doesn’t JM…she is the queen and doesn’t have to do anything 🙂
Rumours are building about Fabregas not being happy at Barca,and his comments give more than a small insight into his mindset.
Bring him home back to his real bome!
I admit i was pissed off when reading he had refused to play for us in a pre season match,but hey,i can change my mind and forgive him.
Fabregas….Diaby….Arteta…..Jack…..Cazorla……
Tell me a better midfield group anywhere but Barca!!
Actually,tell me a better midfield group INCLUDING Barca!!
Wake up my English friends…
Morning Scott and all…
new post up